Crawley 81 and Northeast 87 lead Kent to 299-6 on rain-hit day at Middlesex

Zak Crawley's first Championship fifty of the season — 81 — and Sam Northeast's 87 drove Kent to 299-6 on a rain-shortened opening day of their Rothesay County Championship Division Two match at Northwood. The pair added 142 for the second wicket. Toby Roland-Jones took 3-70 for Middlesex; Ryan Higgins, returning after two months out with a wrist injury, dismissed Crawley caught at slip.